The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player 

Jacques Bellange made this print, "The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player," sometime around 1600, using the etching process. Lines were bitten into a metal plate with acid, then printed onto paper. Look closely, and you'll see how Bellange used the etching needle almost like a pen, creating areas of tone with dense cross-hatching. The very act of drawing on the plate gives the image its dynamism, its quality of being caught in a moment. That's important, because Bellange is showing us a figure from the margins of society. The hurdy-gurdy, a cranked string instrument, was often associated with beggars, and blindness was of course another cause of vulnerability. Bellange is not just showing us an individual, but a whole social situation. Ultimately, prints like this remind us that art isn't just about beauty. It's also about the way materials and processes can connect us to the lives of others, and give form to wider social issues.